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Monday, July 24, 2006

Paris Crème Glacée

I took this in St. Jean de Luz before grabbing a delicious cone there.Then this morning France2.fr daily email arrived with a similar big cone sitting on the Place Tour Eiffel plastered across the front.Irresistable! and titled, Glaces: une grande envie de fraîcheur - L'EAU A LA BOUCHE (mouth watering...?) I'm ready to think about ice cream and nothing else for the moment - a bit of relief from the current bad news and heat wave / la canicule.There are 9 ice cream articles here + a good list of 13 Paris addresses, links to their web sites, and lots of simple recipes like adding fruit or crushed nuts to a good softened ice cream or making fruity popsicles. You can easily translate the articles by clicking on this link [ Translate this page ]Down the street from my 6ème studio was Amorino at #4 rue Vavin. It's one of a chain of 7 Paris gelato shops. Of course I went there my 1st day in Paris. You could stop in at chocolatier,Jean-Paul Hévin (who has take-away lunch items like salmon quiche + a chocolate bar etc) at #3 rue Vavin. Then get your cone at Amorino and head for the Luco (Jardin du Luxembourg) a few steps away for a picnique.The Amorino gelato servers are Italian as are the terms and flavor names used here - To get you into the proper frame of mind...It wouldn't hurt to bone up a bit on French flavors. They can be more exotic than straight vanilla, strawberry or chocolate chip though you will find the classiques too.Here are some examples and get out your dictionaires:Thé Earl grey, pomme verte, thym citron, mûres de framboisier, litchee, thé vert matcha, Noisette praliné, Café pamplemousse, Cannelle, pêche de vigne, violette,caramel au beurre salé, macaron pistache, l'armagnac-pruneaux, After Eight, safran,fleur de rose, tomate, avocat-guacamole, betterave, citron-romarin et citron-basilic.And that doesn't include the endless fruit sorbet flavors. These always taste more intense to me over in France. I'll never forget a certain Pomme Grannie Smith sorbet I had at Brasserie Flo once...Goyave, fraise et citron vert, Cassis, melon, pêche, abricot en juillet, framboise, cassis, myrtille en août, orange sanguine, ananas aux six épices, rhubarbe, mangue etc..."Ice cream colors" describes colors that tend to be pastelly. They're called tints because they're made by adding white to pure color. Or with watercolor by adding lots of water to dilute the color to a thin wash.They often connote a summery feeling, feminine, child-like or prettiness.Some other useful ice cream words:artisanal = small shops with less than 50 workers using traditional methodsune boule / deux boules = 1 dip / 2 dipsavec Chantilly = whipped cream on tople cornet = a conela crème glacée = frozen custard les glaciers = ice cream sellersles granites = chipped ice with flavoured syrup on toples bâtons glacées = popsiclesnos fraîcheur = our freshly made...les parfums = flavoursune sorbet = fruit sherbetBy the way don't expect giant scoops of ice cream. The French diping scoop is about the size of a small apricot and easily 1/2 the size of US scoops. Unless you're at Amorino where they throw on as many flavors tulip-petal style as they can manage and you can eat!

Moi- I have to say I was a little disappointed in Amorino, with all their Italianess, this is not the REAL gelato you get on any street corner in Rome, Florence etc. But they do give you as many flavors as you want, whatever size you order. This is probably why the lines are out the door. Clever marketing IMO.Britt-arnhild - is it coolish there? Or has the heatwave reached even Norway? Fresh berries and vanila ice cream...

Oui. J'aime Paris and Pozzetto.I like Bertillon's sherbets, they taste real good but are a bit icy. Amorino is colourful, a bit fake like that taste of their fattier gelato. Pozzetto's pistachio may not be as green as you are used to see but the taste!! And its smoothness, heavenlish. (My Iranian friends actually tell me the green of pistacchio is artifical colouring).